Prickly Bay

Prickly Bay

Wednesday 29^th and Thursday 30^th  May, 2024

Early on Wednesday, we motored round from True Blue Bay to Prickly Bay.  There are a lot of boats in this bay both anchored and moored.  It took us a while to find a spot to anchor.  It may be the case that some people stay on their boats through the hurricane season in these bays on the south coast of Grenada.  There is a marina and boatyard here, so maybe some folks are awaiting haul out.  

After spending some effort on cleaning and polishing (Stainless), we went ashore to Budget Marine.  Here we acquired the bottom paint for the boat and a few painting supplies.  Much to our surprise, there was a big sign indicating that the store would be closed for the next four days.  It seems that May 30^th is a holiday.  The next two days are stock-taking, followed by Sunday when it’s always closed.  It’s a very lucky thing that we didn’t delay going to shore!

Today we woke to rain and squalls.  The swell was rolling the boat substantially. I was starting to feel unwell.  Mike decided that we should try the swell bridle.  (More about that below.) Between the bridle and the seasick meds, I started to feel better.  None of this was helped by having to keep the boat mostly closed on account of the rain.  I found myself wondering why the conditions had to be so difficult in our last week.  Perhaps it was only to be expected with the increasing heat and humidity of hurricane season.

After lunch, we took a walk to the supermarket. The reason we went to the Ram’s supermarket was to evaluate the potential for re-provisioning in November.  It really was a pretty special market. While we don’t need much in the way of food, we did manage to buy quite a few things.  We got some fruit and fresh milk! It looks like muesli for breakfast tomorrow.     

Gloria 

11 59.942 N, 61 45.775 W

The swell bridle

The wind blows mostly from the east in theses part of the world (NE-E-SE) and Prickly Bay faces south, so we are well protected from the wind and wind-driven waves, but the ocean swells are diffracted around the point and roll into the Bay. So when anchored the boat points into the wind (~East) and the swells (~South) hit you from the side. The result is that the boat starts rolling, sometimes gently, but at other times quite violently. Picture a metronome … By attaching a line to the anchor chain and feeding it back to the stern, it’s possible to turn the boat to face the swells and be side on to the wind. This is a bridle (see picture below). In this configuration the swells are hardly noticeable and it is an order of magnitude more comfortable. 

Mike

p.s We are so happy this evening ... 34:0 ... you know what I'm saying!

Hopefully this drawing illustrates how the bridle turns the boat at anchor towards the swells, where they have much less impact.

There is a ton of moisture in the Caribbean at the minute, which is causing some heavy squalls. In this picture you can see Cotinga is pointed towards the Bay entrance (and the swells) whereas most of the other boats are pointing to the shore (and the wind)

We were hit by a squall with heavy rain and winds that briefly approached 30 knots. The smaller yacht in this photo dragged and came very close to the larger yacht. The latter was on a "bridle", facing ~ 90 degrees to the other vessel, and by releasing the stern line was able to swing out of the way and avoid contact. 

Better Living through Spreadsheets

Better Living through Spreadsheets

Monday 27th - Tuesday 28th May, 2024

As we enter the final week of our journey south, we have tried to get a handle on the jobs we need to complete before we haul out, and the two days we have on “the hard” before flying home. Being nerds by nature (and proud of it) we have naturally turned to a spreadsheet to help our planning. I’d like to say it was an Excel spreadsheet, which is the best, but sadly we are making do with the lame “numbers” spreadsheet that my Mac provides. The jobs that we have to do are many and varied, and range from routine engine maintenance, to laundry, to hurricane preparation. Having visited Clark’s Court in our hire car we know there is a laundry there, so we intend to wash not only our dirty clothes and bedding, but also the fleeces we use to cover our cabin cushions, and the quilted floor mats. Despite our best efforts everything is now salty. However, we couldn’t wait until next week for clean clothes so early on Monday morning we dropped a load of laundry off at the Port Louis Marina laundry, which like most laundries in the Caribbean is full-service facility. You get your clothes back washed, dried and folded neatly in your bag, and pay based on weight. Eureka: I never understood why anyone would wear thong underwear, but now I see the advantage … so much lighter and cheaper to wash! But I digress.

We are working our way through a lot of boat polishing and cleaning, but we did take time out on Monday evening to meet up with a couple of friends, Paul and Tracey on Magic Pelagic, for drinks and dinner at Sails restaurant. Paul and Tracey come from Merseyside (the area I grew up in) and are a lot of fun.

This morning we dropped the mooring in St George’s Bay and motored around the south west tip of Grenada and onto the south coast. This area has several inlets that are a popular destination for cruisers, particularly those hanging out through hurricane season. However, these bays are subject to swells that wrap around from the east / south-east and the anchorages are notorious for swell induced rolliing. We pulled into True Blue Bay with some trepidation and anchored in the south east corner, somewhat protected by a rocky outcrop. It’s a little bouncy but not too terrible so far. Once we arrived here our first job was to decommission the water maker. Our water tanks are full (120 gallons) and we have a couple of extra jerry cans as well. This would normally last us three weeks or so, but with all the cleaning we have to do we expect to increase our usage, but we figure we now have enough. The “pickling” process for the water maker involved replacing the salt water filter (so it’s fresh and ready to go in November), then pumping through about 5 gallons of fresh water and then circulating 1 gallon of storage solution (primarily sodium metabisulfite). It felt good to tick that off the list (actually now highlighted in blue on the spreadsheet … color coding is important!). In the meantime, Gloria has been cleaning out lockers and storage areas … a huge job. We also topped up our diesel tanks and added some extra stabilizer. Better to leave them full rather than empty. 

We managed to take a brief trip to shore and wandered around a little. It was nice to stretch our legs and see something of the local area. We were excited to find a store selling home-made ice cream, but honestly it was so sweet it was almost inedible. 

Over the next few days we plan to check out a number of the bays and anchorages as we make our way over to Clark’s Court Boatyard.

Mike

11 59.736 N; 61 46.107 W

I haven't taken any photos the last two days, but this is an image that I generated using three shots of a girl jumping into Annandale pool (taken in rapid succession), amalgamated in Photoshop

The magic of waterfalls

The magic of waterfalls

Saturday 25^th and Sunday 26^th May, 2024

On Saturday, our plan was to drive to Budget Marine in Prickly Bay, followed by a visit to the Grenada Dove sanctuary and finally a Palm Gardens.  We selected a bottom paint requiring little surface work and compatible with what is on the boat.  However, we didn’t purchase the paint because we needed to register the boat to avoid a 40% surcharge and we didn’t have all our boat documents with us.  The extra cost seemed totally unthinkable.

We arrived at the Dove Sanctuary and were surprised to find the sign fallen over, no attendant, no map, etc. Let me first tell you that the Grenada Dove is the national bird, think Bald Eagle. Somehow I was expected a more serious attempt at preserving this species. According to some accounts on the web, there may only be 100 birds left.  We followed a trail wandering through some very dry forest.  No doves were spotted or heard.  We did see many mockingbirds and one mangrove cuckoo up close.  

As the dove reserve was near Clarkes Court, where we will haul out shortly, we drove over there.  It’s a large boat yard and marina, but the office was closed until Monday. We walked around, checked out the laundry and the chandlery, and went in search  of“hurricane crates”. We have signed up to have one installed around Cotinga and believe that they are a metal frame designed to stop the boat being blown over in storm force winds. However, “hurricane crates” seemed be as elusive as the Grenada doves. We didn’t see a single one and got completely overheated in the process.  We resorted to cool drinks at the restaurant.

Sadly, we never got to the Palm Gardens.  To our amazement, these botanical gardens closed at noon on Saturdays.  Instead, we set off in search of the Mount Carmel waterfall. Upon asking for the location of the falls, we were “adopted” by a guy who insisted on “guiding” us to the falls.  Sometimes there is no graceful away to get out of these situations!  There were a series of pools and several families with young children, enjoying the water.  Strangely enough, we had no trouble finding our way back, even though our guide had taken off once we paid him.  

We did get fairly overheated climbing back to the car. Rather than carry on north, we traveled along the south coast visiting a few peninsulas with fancy “gated communities”.  We were very hot and tired by the time we got back to Cotinga.  A cold shower in the cockpit helped a lot.

On Sundays most things are closed in Grenada.  So our plan was to visit more waterfalls.  Not only are they scenic, but you get to cool off as well.  First up was Annandale Falls.  This site was a lot more commercialized than many.  A concrete walkway led to the falls area.  Some steps took you to a rocky area where you could enjoy the “waterfall massage” standing right under the downpour.  It was like the ultimate power shower, minus the soap.

Many groups of people were here.  The fearless children were diving and jumping from all sorts of platforms.  We had fun watching the show!  

Our second stop was at Concord Falls.  The drive to the falls followed the Concord River and revealed lush vegetation.  It was really beautiful. A short staircase led to the pool at the base of the falls.  Once again there were many families with youngsters. Most kids seemed to be intent on out-doing the next guy.  It was fun to watch and the water refreshed us adequately.  The drive back was enlivened by a pair of hitchhikers. They were standing by the road and waved to stop us.  They were an eleven year old called Peter and a twenty-five year old named (??). we had seen them at  the waterfall and they needed a lift back to St George’s, so we took them south along the coast road and dropped them on a steep road near the sports stadium.  The adult admitted to not liking to watch cricket.  That seemed like a confession that could be a bit controversial here in the West Indies! 

Gloria

The waterfalls were lovely, but what made them particularly special was seeing all the kids and families having such a great time. So rather than show pictures of the waterfalls themselves, these photos have been selected primarily to highlight the people. Sorry there are so many ... I took a lot of photos today and am struggling to decide which to include / exclude.

Our guide for the walk down to Mt. Carmel Falls

The wonderful shower experience at Annandale Falls

Kids jumping into the pool at Annandale Falls

Two divers as a lady enjoys the shower behind

A girls summersaults into the pool 

A young girl lounging on the rocks below Annandale Falls

Mother and daughter

Mother and baby

A man makes a huge jump (maybe 50 ft) into the pool below Annandale Falls (The jumpers have a tips box to make money)

A local jumper at Concord Falls

A little girl near Concord Falls

Mother and daughter in the pool below Concord Falls

A young girl watches her family in Concord Falls

A young boy makes the leap into Concord Falls (almost a landscape !)

A Home Base at Sea

A Home Base at Sea

Thursday 23rd - Friday 24th May, 2024

According to the reports embedded in our Navionics charts, anchoring is no longer permitted in the bay outside Port Louis / St George’s. However, there are plenty of moorings available at $15 USD per night. There is hardly any swell and it is a 5 minute dinghy ride to the Port Louis Marina. All in all it makes a comfortable and convenient base from which to explore the Island of Grenada. 

We spent Thursday morning wandering around St George’s, the capital of Grenada, and the adjacent Port Louis. The whole area has a Mediterranean feel to it, and was fun to visit. Unfortunately, the large fort at the top of the hill overlooking the town is closed for renovation, however, we still had to walk up around it to take in the views. It was hot, thirsty work, so we retired to a restaurant bar on the water called “Sails”. Somehow they manage to have a really good breeze blowing over their deck and it was fascinating to sit right by the harbor and watch a large container ship come in and dock. The food was also excellent - grilled kingfish for Gloria and grilled shrimp for me, with potatoes and a shared salad. After lunch we walked back along the harbor front, picked up a few groceries and headed back to Cotinga for a siesta. We were still feeling pretty lethargic by late afternoon, but a quick swim off the boat and a cool shower in the cockpit revived us. 

At 9 am this morning we were back on shore in the Marina car park to meet Alan from Dreemz who was bringing the rental car to us. We now have a terrific little Suzuki for three days. We headed out and up into the central mountains and visited a lake called Grand Etang. We hiked a 1.5 mile trail all around the lake, which was somewhat lacking in views, but gave a great sense of being in the rain forest. We heard quite a few birds but didn’t see too many, the highlight being a couple of brief views of a Rufous-Breasted Hermit, which is a type of hummingbird that we have never seen before. There was literally no one else on the trail, but as we reached the carpark at the end we came across a large group of people on a guided taxi-tour, and the guides had used bananas to entice a monkey to come down out of the trees. Although wild, he was very tame and evidently quite familiar with the routine. Our second stop was the Seven Sisters Falls. The approach involved a mile hike along a dirt road then down a steep but well maintained path to the river. Despite the ongoing drought, there was plenty of water and the double falls were beautiful. We swam in the pools below both falls and it was marvelous. 

To finish up the day, we took a drive over to a small town on the west side of the island and then followed the coast road back to Port Louis. From what we have see so far, Grenada is beautiful, somewhat reminiscent of Dominica but more affluent. 

Mike

12 02.501 N, 61 45.351 W

The fishing port in St George's

Gloria in Sails restaurant - Grilled kingfish, potatoes and salad - with an unobstructed view across the harbor

From our table we watched this container ship, along with a pilot vessel, come in and dock

A green heron on the shore of Port Louis

The square rigger "Picton Castle" is anchored (?) behind us. It looked so beautiful that I took to the dinghy so that I could position the sunset directly behind

I think so much of photography is about what you don't include. At this point I think the monkey was seated on a tourists shoulder, but you would have no idea ...! 

The monkey retreated up a tree.

A young couple in the upper pool of Seven Sisters Falls. The pool and waterfall are bigger than they look in this photo

A cute little lizard down near the falls

The view from our "back-door" at 6.17 pm this evening

To Grenada

To Grenada

Tuesday 21^st and Wednesday 22^nd May,2024

Tuesday was the day for our sail from Carriacou to Grenada.  Because of the underwater volcano (Kick ‘em Jenny), it’s not advisable to attempt the direct route. In fact earlier this year, the exclusion zone around the volcano was expanded to 5km.  While that increase is no longer in effect, we picked our route to stay outside the larger zone.  This meant our trip would be in two legs, first a broad reach to the edge of the zone then a beam reach down to Grenada.  We chose to go with full mainsail and full genoa.  The first leg was fairly mild except for a squall that blew through.  We were making water so we hoped to stop the engine (to feather the propeller and stop it spinning) and restart keeping the engine in neutral for power.  However, the prop would start to spin again and we were forced to put the engine into gear at low revs.  There were some unpleasant noises that were stressing Mike.  

After about 2 hours we hit our waypoint and turned in a more southerly direction. We turned off the motor and continued sailing, but ran the water maker for another hour until we had collected about 15 gallons of water.  Then the sailing became quite “salty”.  All was well until we got into the lee of Grenada.  The wind speed that had been steady at around 15 knots, became varied from less than 8 knots to about 25 knots.  When a big gust hit us, we took a lot of water over the rail and decided it was time to douse the genoa.  By this point we were tired so we decided to head for the closer anchorage.

We turned into a small cove encircled by cliffs a short distance north of Halifax.  There were two yellow-hulled boats already at anchor. We attempted to go further into the bay to anchor in front of these vessels. We were just about to drop the anchor when I spotted a heavy-duty white line below us.  That could have been a nasty foul up. We quickly decided to anchor behind the second of the two boats.  Once stationary, the impact of the swell became obvious—side-to-side rolling.  The motion was exacerbated when the wind died away later in the day.  It was a night for seasick meds and sleeping in the main cabin.  The GPS showed many revolutions around the anchor overnight! All told it was a difficult day.

We were moving a tad slowly this morning.  Knowing that we only had a few miles to go, there seemed no reason to rush.  We hoisted the anchor and motored about 3 miles to pick up a mooring near an underwater sculpture park.  We needed to launch the dinghy and get the outboard on it.  The dinghy was bouncing all over the place, causing us to decide that we wouldn’t be staying there overnight!  The snorkeling over the sculptures was interesting.  (You can search on the inter-webs if you want to see some photos). We also saw some interesting fish, including large parrot fish and a flounder!  We also saw a whole squadron (?) of squid and a Donkey Dung sea cucumber (!)

After lunch and a rest, we dropped the mooring and motored a few miles to a mooring field off Port Louis.  It was a challenging pick-up—no line, just the thimble at the top of the ball.  Thankfully, our resident genius was able to sort out the lines from the deck.  Port Louis is adjacent to St. George’s.  It looks to be a much more urban area.  From here we hope to explore the town and rent a car to see more of the interior of Grenada. 

Gloria

12 02.505 N, 61 45.353 W

Our last night in Tyrrel bay, Carriacou gave us an amazing sunset  (panorama created from 8 x vertical format shots with 70 mm lens)

It was one of those nights when it just stayed beautiful for long after the sun dropped below the horizon (wide angle  17 mm lens)

A mature brown booby takes flight whilst a youngster looks on. The birds were perched on the bowsprit of an old wooden vessel

The rolly anchorage of Halifax Bay ... our first night off the coast of Grenada

St George's Grenada, as we saw it approaching the mooring field to the south

Full moon tonight over Grenada

Rounding things up in Carriacou

Rounding things up in Carriacou

Sunday 19th - Monday 20th May 2024

There was one more anchorage that we wanted to explore before moving on from Carriacou. So after a quiet night at Sandy Island we dropped the mooring and headed round to the south coast of Carriacou and motored a couple of miles into stiff winds and short steep waves to a channel on the west side of Saline Island. This idyllic spot has room for 3 or 4 boats to anchor on the edge of a rapidly shoaling sandy bay. The current here is really strong, in the order of 2 knots or more, and unfortunately, we were the 4th boat to arrive, so we ended up anchored in a less than ideal spot. We felt that we were solid where we were, but if the current reversed with the tide (which it can sometimes do) then we might find ourselves perilously close to the reef. However, because of the other boats there wasn’t room to move further back. Snorkeling directly from Cotinga was an incredible experience. We saw two fairly small Green turtles almost immediately, followed by a medium sized one a few minutes later and then a truly enormous one after that! They were all in shallow water (~10 ft deep) and didn’t seem to be the least bit bother by us. The water clarity was excellent and we had wonderful views of them feeding on turtle grass on the sea floor. Moving on to explore the fringing reef we saw lots of fish, including a Flying Gurnard and two White-spotted Filefish. The corals looked in good shape, reinforcing our impression that the snorkeling in Carriacou is some of the best we have encountered. However, because of the strong currents this location is a bit scary. If we come back in the future with friends we will try and do a drift snorkel with one person in the dinghy tracking the others. With mixed feelings, we opted not to spend the night at Saline Island and headed back to Tyrrel Bay to sleep.

Today we planned to go to shore and get some laundry done. However, when we arrived at Ziggy’s laundry it was closed. It turns out today is a National holiday for Whit. So we made some extra fresh water using the water-maker and did some laundry by hand. We did manage to get a few groceries and in the afternoon took a dinghy ride into a lagoon adjacent to the Bay  that is sheltered on all sides by mangroves. Boats are not allowed to enter the lagoon except when there are storm warnings (it would an excellent hurricane hole), but we did see several boats that were tied up to the mangroves and had either been abandoned or sank. There were some good photo opportunities. 

We have created a jobs list of things we need to get done before we haul out in two weeks time and we have started to work through some of them. One conundrum is how to keep our boat batteries fully charged if there is no access to shore power? We do have a generator and have signed up with a company to look after Cotinga while we are away, so maybe they can run that. But another option is to get our solar system up and running. We haven’t bothered with that in the past because we need to run the engine anyway for the refrigeration, with a direct drive from the engine to the compressor. We do have one large flexible panel and we are pre-wired for solar. However, The panel is so old I think the overall output is really low, but it may be enough keep the batteries topped up whilst we are away. Anyway, for the first time since we have owned the boat, we have the solar system up and running and do believe it is generating some power.

Tomorrow morning we will head south for the main island of Grenada. The PredictWind forecast is good and it should be a pleasant sail (famous last words … !). We do have to take a dog-leg route to avoid the exclusion zone around the underwater volcano “Kick-em-Jenny”. A large gas vent from that could spoil your whole day!

Mike

The beautiful Saline Island anchorage. The currents are very strong (2 + knots), which makes the snorkeling a little scary.

The anchoring room is quite limited. We would have liked to be 100 feet further back, but we would have been right on top of the catamaran.

Gloria prearing to pull up the anchor, with the deck-wash hose in hand, pumping salt water to wash the chain and anchor. 

A selection of abstract shots of boats in or near the mangrove lagoon. This sailboat had sunk

The stern of the sunken sailboat

A sunken wooden skiff

This could be a painting of the moon rising above the water, with hills on either side and clouds above the horizon ... but it's actaully the stern of a blue wooden ship reflected in the water.

One hull of a large commercial catamaran ... apparentlty no longer in use

Ships hulls reflected

Ditto